South Bay : A Royal Invitation for a Loyal Resident

It’s not every day a Manhattan Beach resident is invited to dinner with a king, but then Angeta Nilsson, 55, is not your average beach city denizen.

In fact, she was recently named Sweden’s citizen of the year abroad by an organization headed by King Carl Gustav XVI. Nilsson, the first woman to receive the award in the organization’s 57-year history, travels to Sweden this week for an awards ceremony and dinner Saturday.

In the 35 years since she left her homeland and came to the United States, Nilsson has done much for her fellow Swedes.

Twenty-five years ago, she helped raise money to buy a new home for the pastor of her Swedish Lutheran congregation in San Pedro. Nine years later, she founded a now international organization that promotes Swedish culture in more than 18 countries. More recently, she organized a reunion of 1,400 Swedish expatriates in Stockholm.

And the first words she plans to tell the monarch? “Thank you, I suppose.”